Page 233 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Unit 20: Edward Said's Crisis [In Orientalism]: Textual Analysis

Conrad does not give us the sense that he could imagine a fully realized alternative to imperialism: Notes
the natives he wrote about in Africa, Asia, or America were incapable of independence, and
because he seemed to imagine that European tutelage was a given, he could not foresee what
would take place when it came to an end. But come to an end it would, if only because-like all
human effort, like speech itself- it would have its moment, then it would have to pass (Said, 375).
These two "visions" are not reconciled in the essay presented in our text book Modern Literary
Theory, Said has left this up for the reader of post-colonial literature to decide.

20.2 Edward Said’s Crisis
Edward Said's essay "Crisis (in Orientalism)" investigates the portrayals of Orientals within writing
and as a people, through studying various works he unlocks the misconceptions made in Western
culture. In his essay, "Crisis (in Orientalism)" Edward Said studies and critiques the placement of
Orientals in literature and outside of it, arguing the powerfulness of misinterpretations and
stereotype. He begins his essay by offering an analysis on texts, what makes a text empowering
and how an author can create a falsity through character construction. Early in the essay Said
offers a fun analogy of a "fierce lion" which acts as a decoder for the remainder of his essay. While
the text is extremely readable and not as challenging as previous works, it is difficult at some
points to uncover his position. Said cites authors who write on the Oriental who he claim are racist
(Friedrich Schlegel), thought-provoking (Anwar Abdel Malek) and frank (Gustave Flaubert). His
argument seems to be that there is an impossibility to having a true Oriental work or character.
Western writers, he argues, have glossed over the Oriental with stereotypes, misreadings, and
bias.
Midway through the essay, Said proposes a metaphorical bin to which Oriental works are placed.
One sentence in particular creates a dichotomy of what is in the bin and what is outside of it as a
struggle between Western and Oriental tradition, "It is as if, one the one hand, a bin called 'Oriental'
existed into which all the authoritative, anonymous, and traditional Western attitudes to the East
were dumped unthinkingly, while on the other, true to the anecdotal tradition of storytelling, one
could nevertheless tell of experiences with or in the Orient that had so little to do with the
generally serviceable bin". By using the terms authoritative and anonymous to describe Western
culture, Said suggests an unbalanced validity and secrecy of the dominant attitude toward the
Oriental. Also, the use of anecdotal tradition reminded me of Walter Benjamin's argument of oral
tradition versus the use of text and how that was a struggle between a dominant and secondary
source. On the other side (or, outside the "serviceable bin) of Western tradition, the Oriental use of
storytelling wasn't as prevalent in comparison. Benjamin asserted a sense of power to anecdotal
storytelling, likewise Said uses it as a form of comparison to the West.
While unexpected, Said's reference to Disney-Walt Disney, Disneyism, Disneyland-caused me to
reread that portion to understand its meaning more clearly. Before making the comparison to Said
and Orientals, I used Disney films as a reference point. Films such as Pocahontas, Aladdin, and
Mulan all represent racial minorities through the Western lens. While they announce a true and
accurate representation, most of the films feature stereotypes in colorful form. Said's assertion of
this that "Orientals have never understood the meaning of self-government the way 'we' do"
seems to imply a paternalistic attitude toward non-Western ideals. The third time he uses Disney,
however, ("Disneyland") implies something different, "Please take all your ideas about a left and
a right wing, revolutions, and change back to Disneyland" . The tone of this sentence is different
because of it's implication that by having these ideas, the person is considered childish. While
Disney is referential to many things-films, songs, Walt Disney, characters-Disneyland is a specialized
as a place. Children go there, people who've yet to intellectually challenge, critique, and understand
the world. Said's use of sarcasm also concedes that the people who believe in change and revolutions
are reverted back to child-like patterns of thinking.

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